The XRP Ledger (XRPL) has activated two major protocol amendments, introducing a native Permissioned Decentralized Exchange (DEX) and enhanced Token Escrow functionality, fundamentally altering its infrastructure for regulated finance and DeFi compliance.
The Permissioned DEX amendment (XLS-81) went live on February 18. This upgrade creates controlled trading environments directly within XRPL's native DEX, offering three distinct offer types: Open (functioning as before), Permissioned (requiring verified credentials to place or accept trades), and Hybrid (which taps a private pool first before falling back to the open DEX). The system is built on top of earlier amendments for Credentials (XLS-70) and Permissioned Domains (XLS-80), allowing domain operators to set access lists. Trades are matched only within the same domain, enabling counterparty verification and compliance controls that regulated institutions require.
This development follows the activation of the Token Escrow amendment (XLS-85) on February 12. This feature allows any token on the XRPL, not just XRP, to be locked with programmable conditions such as time-based releases, milestone triggers, and multi-party approvals, all natively on the ledger without custom smart contracts. The escrow cost is 0.2 XRP per escrowed asset.
According to XRPL Commons, which tested the amendments end-to-end on Devnet, the infrastructure is now live and ready for builders. The organization emphasized that all functionality is protocol-native, requiring no custom contracts. The open DEX continues to operate unchanged alongside the new permissioned systems.
The update is seen as a direct response to growing institutional demand for compliant on-chain trading. Rayhaneh Sharif Askary, head of product and research at Grayscale, noted that financial advisors are reporting increasing client interest in XRP, often making it the second most discussed asset after Bitcoin. XRP-focused investment products have seen nearly $4.5 million in inflows recently.
Potential use cases highlighted include B2B invoice settlement with verified counterparties, jurisdiction-specific trading zones for treasury teams, whitelist phases for token launches, and private trading for gaming guilds. The integration of escrow and credentials enables automated workflows like locking stablecoin liquidity that unlocks automatically when transaction volume hits a predefined threshold.
The documentation notes that permissioned offers become invalid if credentials expire or if a domain owner changes the accepted credential list, placing significant responsibility on domain operators. Furthermore, permissioned DEXes are not compatible with Automated Market Makers (AMMs), and a single transaction cannot pull liquidity from two different permissioned DEXes simultaneously.
